Just logged in to check their available assignments for my area, and saw a little yellow triangle at the top of my homepage on TNS, clicked it, and got this message:

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6/11/2013: Delayed Shopper Payments

Please be advised that many checks from all payrolls in May (and first of June) are delayed. Hopefully all of the delayed payments will be resolved this week. We appreciate your patience.
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I have not completed any shops for this company, yet...but from everything I've read on this forum, delayed payments do not sound very good - If an independent contractor accepts an assignment, and performs the work, and there is an agreement on when the independent contractor is to be paid, and the company delays payment, is that not a violation of the agreement between shopper/MSC?

Is this considered par for the course, for a company to delay payments to shoppers, or a highly unusual thing to happen? And when a company delays payments, what are some of the reasons why this would happen? Finally, am I naive to think that the company should add some sort of bonus when they have to delay payments, such as interest for late payments?